Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

[slowbird]

Even with Sunny's comments this thread has been really informative and helpful.

I have spent some time crunching the numbers and test driving Volts. I really like them. From what I can tell and from what I have read they are great cars. So I have decided to make the leap and purchase one...though I'm worried the switch from a G37 to a Chevy Volt may be a bit of an adjustment. I'm hoping the Volts torque, toys, green plate benefits, and money savings will win me over. (Also, the G37 was a bit of a waste size wise when it's just me driving around in it 90% of the time)
In a few days I pickup a 2014 Volt.

Insurance is dropping over $700/year. Last month alone I spent over $400 in fuel, which is about average for me. If I keep my commute to EV only, which should be easily done with my 45km round trip to work, I'm looking at quite the savings. Hopefully work lets me plug in somewhere as that would be a bonus.

Thank you Private Pilot and LBV for your real world input as well as everyone that made a worth-while contribute to this thread. Really quite the eye opener.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Awesome. We are loving ours still, although of course we are till in the honeymoon phase, but it's living up to expectations so far. I had a friend drive it last night and he was pleasantly surprised - dashed a lot of the preconceptions people have of electric vehicles, and when I put it into sport mode he was even surprised at the performance – it's no V8, don't give me wrong, but it is surprisingly perky in sport mode.

And hey, I'm doing well with the weekend goal I mentioned in my last post. Will post the final stats later this evening. Still some more city driving to be done today!

 

[mimico_polak]

Even with Sunny's comments this thread has been really informative and helpful.

I have spent some time crunching the numbers and test driving Volts. I really like them. From what I can tell and from what I have read they are great cars. So I have decided to make the leap and purchase one...though I'm worried the switch from a G37 to a Chevy Volt may be a bit of an adjustment. I'm hoping the Volts torque, toys, green plate benefits, and money savings will win me over. (Also, the G37 was a bit of a waste size wise when it's just me driving around in it 90% of the time)
In a few days I pickup a 2014 Volt.

Insurance is dropping over $700/year. Last month alone I spent over $400 in fuel, which is about average for me. If I keep my commute to EV only, which should be easily done with my 45km round trip to work, I'm looking at quite the savings. Hopefully work lets me plug in somewhere as that would be a bonus.

Thank you Private Pilot and LBV for your real world input as well as everyone that made a worth-while contribute to this thread. Really quite the eye opener.

my friend went from a G37 to a Volt due to an accident that wrote of her car. She's very happy and she's a car chick that always had fun cars.

im also considering but the new ones are out of my reach. About how much for your 2014?

 

[slowbird]

Awesome. We are loving ours still, although of course we are till in the honeymoon phase, but it's living up to expectations so far. I had a friend drive it last night and he was pleasantly surprised - dashed a lot of the preconceptions people have of electric vehicles, and when I put it into sport mode he was even surprised at the performance – it's no V8, don't give me wrong, but it is surprisingly perky in sport mode.

And hey, I'm doing well with the weekend goal I mentioned in my last post. Will post the final stats later this evening. Still some more city driving to be done today!

Nice! I look forward to hearing your reports. Oh! The 2014 doesn't have the electric charge port door fyi. It's just a regular push to unlock type. I was pushing the key fob and was like "WTH?!" and then I pushed the door and it popped open. lol

my friend went from a G37 to a Volt due to an accident that wrote of her car. She's very happy and she's a car chick that always had fun cars.

im also considering but the new ones are out of my reach. About how much for your 2014?

Awesome. I appreciate you sharing your friends experience with me.

Yeah I looked briefly at a new one but way out of my price range. Even with the huge incentives.

My 2014 was around $18k with a bit over 80,000kms. That's on the higher scale of the used Volts on the market though. Mine was a bit more cause it's 1 owner, and is fully loaded with leather, Nav, park assist and all those bells and whistles.

 

[PrivatePilot]

My 2014 was around $18k with a bit over 80,000kms. That's on the higher scale of the used Volts on the market though. Mine was a bit more cause it's 1 owner, and is fully loaded with leather, Nav, park assist and all those bells and whistles.

I think I might have looked at that one - was it on Trader? Red by chance?

Anyhow, keep one thing in mind - don't assume anything until you've driven it for 3-4 days. There's lots of stories out there of people that buy Volts and then get all paranoid when they only get 35-40K out of their first charge. My wifes first ever commute she "only" got 40K on the battery...but there's SO many variables that you can't assume one day will be any indicator of the next, I've learned. Her first ever commute was also horrible weather and she had not yet adjusted her driving style fully to maximize things - now less than a week later she's really starting to get into that groove and is using the effeciency display to see how high she can get her score. I've got up to 89% but she's catching up to me. Ironically my daughter drove it for the first time yesterday and hit mid 90's.

I can see it's going to become a contest...which is cool because it challenges you to become a much more efficient driver.

As for range, yesterday I drove 40K and came home with 18K still showing on the dash and it was still slowly creeping upwards, IE I was driving about 1.2-1.3K for every 1K coming off the battery - it is a very big sliding scale more so than an actual "You'll only go this far" meter. I'm confident I would have made 60K easily. Today I saw the battery meter go UP 1K as I decended a long grade in my neighborhood and used the regen solely to maintain speed, vs brakes.

Learn the HVAC system - it is way different than a standard car and has many features that are designed to maximize electric range but if you don't understand everything it's easy to whack your range by accident. There is a meter on the HVAC screenthat shows how much (or little) the HVAC system is consuming, so play with the settings one evening with the car plugged in and you can get a better feeling for things.

And lastly, crappy cold weather (IE, full lighting system, heat & defrost, windshield wipers, wind) will kick the electric mileage..again, no free ride when it comes to electricity consumption. I fully expect to get no more than 40K (highway) or so on battery many of the winter months and my wifes experiences are in line with that so far, but this week will be interesting with the warmer temperatures and less need for HVAC, lights, & wipers, Tuesday excluded.

FWIW, I found a Clipper Creek EVSE (Charger) for sale on Kijiji - guy bought a brand new 2017 Volt and already had a charging station at home so he didn't want it. I snapped it up as it was discovered some time ago that when fed 240v, these specific models were also designed to operate at Level 2. Plugged in to the 240V plug in my garage I'm now happily charging at 240V (many times quicker), and an added bonus is that the precondition cycle I ran this morning went completely on grid power vs the 110V charger where it also sapped some of the battery in addition to the grid - the 110V EVSE can't supply sufficient amps to accomplish this.

Anyhow, I'm still learning, but we are really starting to hit our groove now. My wife absolutely LOVES it so far - she can't stop telling everyone how much she loves it.

Lastly, I did scare the crap out of someone in a parking lot this afternoon creeping up on them silently - was pulling into a parking spot as they were loading groceries, they turned around, and boom, didn't expect to see me.

I guess there's a reason for that pedestrian horn feature. (Not my video, but gives everyone the idea)

[video=youtube;MgORxl0NXXw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgORxl0NXXw[/video]

 

[PrivatePilot]

So, as promised, here's this weekends stats.

156.2 Kilometers travelled.
ZERO liters consumed.

We could easily have done 200K this weekend and still never burned a drop of gas - yesterday I was out and about accomplishing things in town and came home every time with lots of range left on the battery, and with the level 2 charger setup now even an hour parked in the driveway can get us 15-20 kilometers again.

Most impressive, my wife went out tonight with a friend - left home, went to North Oshawa to pickup said friend, over to another place in Ajax, back to north oshawa afterwards to drop off the friend at home again, and then home herself - total distance as per Google maps was just over 51 Kilometers of city driving - the photo above was the car just as she arrived home from that trip, so as you can see even having driven 51K she still had 10 left, and might have got 11-13 out of it with conservative driving.

THIS is where the Volt wins vs a Hybrid. THIS is what I knew was going to be a huge benefit, commuting aside.

An Accord or Civic hybrid would have burned (again, as per real-world numbers from fuelly.com) about 8.5L of gas, at $1.15/L, nearly $10 worth of gas.

Instead, about $2.25 in electricity in the Volt.

I can see routinely saving $50+ every month in gas just doing our weekend running around on electric alone. That's not including the other savings.

Next challenge: Based on todays excellent range now that HVAC use has dropped and the weather has warmed up, I'm going to bet that at least one day this week my wife makes her 70K commute on less than 1L of gas.

 

[nfq]

Thanks for the real world feedback. The more I read and hear about the Volt, the more I find myself trying to figure out if it can fit as my next car.

Sent from my LG-H831 using Tapatalk

 

[GateKeeper]

Can you please post it as

70Km, 70km, 70KM

not 70K

70K to me is 70 thousand.....and not just 70

When I read your first post on distance traveled and so on, it confused the crap out of me....

my wife makes her 70K commute on less than 1L of gas

that is one hell of a daily commute.....

my apologies for being so anal.....

 

[LBV]

That's fantastic slowbird .. welcome to the club as well! Put the saved money aside after the breakeven date is reached and maybe you'll buy a toy car as I did.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Will do GateKeeper.

So, today I was off work for some appointments and my wife ended up working from home, so we went out together and accomplished all sorts of stuff, and hey, even better performance than the weekend. I really think I could have hit 70KM.

When I got home I finished setting up the charging schedules so that even if my wife plugs it in when she arrives home at 5:30'ish it won't consume expensive hydro, automatically waiting until 7PM instead. There's also a summer schedule setting that changes automatically based on the dates you put in.

These can be overridden anytime you want for "charge immediately" if you want...I did exactly that for about 1.5 hours this afternoon (on mid rate hydro) as I know we are going back out again this evening...and even mid rate electricity is still cheaper than gas.

 

[GreyGhost]

Cool, I like that the schedules are easy to setup.
How does charge now work? Do you need to go into menus or can you just press a button on the charger?

 

[slowbird]

That's fantastic slowbird .. welcome to the club as well! Put the saved money aside after the breakeven date is reached and maybe you'll buy a toy car as I did.

Thanks LBV. Though I doubt I'll be able to afford a second car anytime soon. One of the reasons I ditched the Infiniti for the Volt was because insurance was becoming way to high.


PrivatePilot, Thanks for the real world info again. I'm looking forward to getting my Volt.
...and no the one I got was Black. Not red.

 

[slowbird]

Oh ...and unfortunately a level 2 charger is most likely out of the question for me. I rent an apt in a stacked Townhouse kinda of complex. Though I have a Garage with an outlet I don't know about spending the money on getting a Level 2 setup when I don't know how long I will be renting it.

I'd have to say so far this is the first downside/annoyance of a plug in vehicle that I have come across. Charging at 12a in my garage that runs a 15a breaker, having to wonder if I can open the automatic garage door while the car is charging without tripping the breaker. etc etc

 

[PrivatePilot]

Cool, I like that the schedules are easy to setup.
How does charge now work? Do you need to go into menus or can you just press a button on the charger?

Plug it in and it starts the charge, or delays (based on your charge preference configurations) until the rate zone you "allow" it to charge at. You can tell it to only charge off peak, mid or off peak, or anytime..you can also configure it to automatically finish a charge "just in time" based on a departure time config screen which will override all electricity rate lockouts in order to make sure you have a full charge when you're walking out to your car to get ready to drive.

PrivatePilot, Thanks for the real world info again. I'm looking forward to getting my Volt.

Glad people are finding it interesting. This has been a fun ride for me and I'm still learning things about it.

Oh ...and unfortunately a level 2 charger is most likely out of the question for me. I rent an apt in a stacked Townhouse kinda of complex. Though I have a Garage with an outlet I don't know about spending the money on getting a Level 2 setup when I don't know how long I will be renting it.

I'd have to say so far this is the first downside/annoyance of a plug in vehicle that I have come across. Charging at 12a in my garage that runs a 15a breaker, having to wonder if I can open the automatic garage door while the car is charging without tripping the breaker. etc etc

I was charging on level 1 at home for the first 4-5 nights. The receptacle in my garage also powers my garage door openers as well as a small chest freezer that I know cycles on and off about once per hour. I had *no* problems operating any of the above (even both garage door openers at once) while the car was charging on the 12A setting. I only popped the breaker once when I fired up my air compressor without thinking to unplug the car first...otherwise, no problems. The level 1 charge was taking between 7-8.5 hours to finish so it's totally doable for overnight charging while still having a full charge for your morning commute.

The thing I like about the Level 2 is that on a day like yesterday we could go out, basically deplete the battery, come home and plug it in for a few hours and get 50-70% of a charge again and then continue on electric.

However I understand that it's not an option for everyone...but getting a 240v circuit installed for a level 2 EVSE isn't a massive deal as some would have you think, and could even be setup temporary-ish for your situation - you only need 12/2 wiring for the Volt as it only draws max 16-ish amps, and 12/2 can carry 20, so it still fits inside the 80% constant load safety guidelines. 12/2 is also cheap, you can get a 100 foot roll of it at Home Depot for only $75. If you find a level 2 EVSE for a good deal, all you need is a breaker in your panel at that point and either the know-how (or an electrician) to hook it up for you, run the armor cable out to your parking area/garage, and away you go. Ultimately it depends if there's a way to get the wire from the panel to the garage, however.

That said, Level 1 is totally doable as well at 12 amps. If you commute all week and use zero gas then using a little on the weekends (if/when you exhaust your electric miles and can't replenish them fast enough with level 1) isn't the end of the world.

 

[slowbird]

Thanks for all the PP. Makes me feel a bit more relieved about my situation.

Any idea what amp breaker your garage circuit runs on?

 

[PrivatePilot]

Standard 15 amp breaker.

The EVSE will only draw around 12 max so that still leaves a few amps before the breaker pops - the important part is to make sure nothing else on that garage circuit runs constantly that uses more than a few watts - my chest freezer for example, once started, only draws around 50 watts when running.

I don't think you'll have any issues. If the receptacle itself is old and crusty however consider getting a new one installed as it will be taxed at the 12a setting.

Unfortunately in a 2013+ using a level 1 charger you need to manually re-select the 12 amp option in the car before every charge otherwise it defaults to the 8a "safe" rate. This was a big gripe amongst 2013+ owners who rely on level 1, but I'm told is something you get used to doing. On the 2012 and older the amp rate is set on the charger itself instead of the car, and the setting is sticky.

On level 2 it always defaults to fast charge.

 

[GreyGhost]

Garage door opener will pull 6 amps or less. Assuming the charger is pulling the full 12A, a 15A breaker is unlikely to pop. As you are only pulling 18 amps max, my experience has been most breakers will tolerate quite a few seconds before popping. (Just for fun, I looked up the trip curves for breakers and for the one I was looking at, at double the rated amperage, you still have 40 seconds before it pops)

 

[slowbird]

Standard 15 amp breaker.

The EVSE will only draw around 12 max so that still leaves a few amps before the breaker pops - the important part is to make sure nothing else on that garage circuit runs constantly that uses more than a few watts - my chest freezer for example, once started, only draws around 50 watts when running.

I don't think you'll have any issues. If the receptacle itself is old and crusty however consider getting a new one installed as it will be taxed at the 12a setting.

Unfortunately in a 2013+ using a level 1 charger you need to manually re-select the 12 amp option in the car before every charge otherwise it defaults to the 8a "safe" rate. This was a big gripe amongst 2013+ owners who rely on level 1, but I'm told is something you get used to doing. On the 2012 and older the amp rate is set on the charger itself instead of the car, and the setting is sticky.

On level 2 it always defaults to fast charge.

Yeah I don't mind having to select the 12a setting on the display. I already messed around with that when I was test driving Volts. I like the addition of HOLD mode as well as the manual charge door so It's a fair trade off IMO.

My place is fairly newly built. Less than 10 years old. Receptacles are new and in good shape. Besides the garage door opener, nothing else is really plugged in. (Maybe the bike battery tender over winter) so I'm expecting no issues.

Garage door opener will pull 6 amps or less. Assuming the charger is pulling the full 12A, a 15A breaker is unlikely to pop. As you are only pulling 18 amps max, my experience has been most breakers will tolerate quite a few seconds before popping. (Just for fun, I looked up the trip curves for breakers and for the one I was looking at, at double the rated amperage, you still have 40 seconds before it pops)

Super interesting and informative. Thanks GG! Garage door opener doesn't take 40 seconds and it's a small 1/2hp model on a small single car door so fingers crossed.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Garage door opener won't be an issue - both of mine are 1/3HP units and like I said, I (without thinking) hit both of them to open at once one day while the car was charging at 12A - no issues. Breakers don't typically pop at exactly their rated load, they will allow surges to briefly exceed it - motor loads as well as things like fridges/freezers typically have a fairly sizeable starting surge load, but then when actually operating they draw very little. My chest freezer for example which shares my garage circuit might draw up to a full amp when it starts, but once going draws very little.

 

[-D-]

@PP and other Volters

Can you guys post the kms/100L if using ONLY gas.
Just curious to see what the car is like on gas engine only.